Consultant, Counselor, and Coach

Writer’s Workshop at Sea

One more dream trip for Paul and me just happened last week. How do I tell about such a trip? First, we were in the presence of people I have admired for years. There was Louise Hay, who bought out the whole Holland America Amsterdam ship for this cruise. She signed my old 1982 edition of “You Can Heal Your Life” with a lovely sentiment in green ink. Louise is now 83 years old and still positive. She is full of the radiance of life, so much that you can feel it when you stand near her.

Then there was Cheryl Richardson, whose work and books have been instrumental in change for our precious middle child–Kaye Barlow. Kaye kicked it up a notch in her personal development when she went through Cheryl’s books and workbooks with our dear friend, Dr. Kathleen McWhorter. That was a long time ago and on this cruise, Cheryl was vibrant and still making her own ideas come alive in new books, tapes, and videos. Paul got her autograph on two books and is already applying her “extreme self care”. I love it!

Highlights for me were around Wayne Dyer. He is a world class spiritual leader now. His book on the Tao te Ching, “Living the Wisdom of the Tao”, is exquisite. It is beautiful in form and full of life wisdom through Affirmations for all 81 verses. But it is Wayne Dyer’s Presence that impresses me. He is so “there” or “here” with full mind-body-spirit awareness and presence. He makes contact and stays until the people go away. One of our new friends was in her wheel-chair and Wayne Dyer stopped what he was doing, knelt down to look in her eyes, gave her his full attention, learning about her diagnosis, when it happened, what it is, etc. Then he sent his assistant to get his book, “Excuses-BeGone!” and instructed our new friend to work the third paradigm. He told me later that she would be out of that chair. I believe she will, too. She is a remarkable and brilliant young woman who is learning and writing as she learns. She will move through this transformation, I am certain.

The writer’s workshop was the best for me. We were given depth instruction from Reid Tracy, CEO of Hay House Publishers regarding the way to get published. He is so down to earth and gave generously of the truths behind the scenes for would-be authors. We also received a helpful, encouraging writers’ workshop from an award winning author, Lisa Fugard. Lisa was real, she was genuine, she was honest, and she gave me hope. Her book, Skinner’s Drift, took a long time to write and longer to sell. The fictional memoir of life in Africa and the years of apartheid ending are a part of the story. It is worth reading and serves as an awesome model for anyone wishing to write their story as fiction. As a teacher, she encourages us to find our own voice. The internal “censor” is so strong for me, you can only imagine how I needed Lisa’s encouraging words.

Margarete Nielsen, VP of Marketing for Hay House, was our last presenter. She gave us enough material to be worth the cost of the whole cruise. Her notes were beautifully organized, attractively packaged in a booklet, and she presented them with enough interesting comments to hold our attention from start to finish. I talked with several people who were in agreement with me that she gave us the details we all needed for a good marketing approach. Margarete knows the finest details of internet marketing, building a base, and creating a platform.

It will be very hard work. I will be prone to procrastinate–to put it off. My first book was herky-jerky because it was written after long days in my couseling work without long blocks of time to think and write. I think people who drop everything to “just write” may have an answer. For me, I will do it as I do everything in my life, multi-tracking and fitting in the writing to my already busy schedule. Paul and I have had a conversation about time management. We are approaching these books we are writing with the joy of the creative life spirit. As we sub-divide our 168 hours of life in every week, we are seeing a way to have blocks of time for the production of the manuscripts. Yes, I will have a proposal ready by the Hay House deadline. I will do my very best to complete the manuscript by the end of this year. And, then I am willing to do the hard work of editing, allowing others to take it apart, and put it back together as a helpful read for those who want to plunge into my words. I support Paul’s book, “The Solid Gold Child” in the same way. We will discipline ourselves to the time needed. What a nice way to spend our 80th and 82nd years, individually, in our 45 year marriage.

If you are curious, the manuscript I am working on is called (working title) “The Possible Woman Gets Engaged” and it is about all these incredibly bright women who are beginning to step up to leadership in the world. I discovered on the cruise something I had not allowed into my consciousness before:

For the last 50 years, I have taken courses, workshops, seminars. I have been the teacher of record for thousands of courses, workshops, and seminars. I have been therapist and therapized. I have done all kinds of personal growth and self help schemes. In all of those 50 years, the majority–even 90% — of the participants in all these life changing growth events were women–females–the fair sex. We actually must have been preparing for leadership in the Aquarian Age. So, my book is about all those women becoming “engaged” in the process of life on earth. That means, women will be leading the way for a sustainable future ecologically, economically, and socially. That is what I hope to say a lot about in a book, which actually is the sequel to my first self-published book, “The Possible Woman”.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for listening. I would like to know you better, so please make a time and a place for our conversation. You can e-mail me at marj@marjbarlow.com

To all my Interface Flor, Inc. “coachees”, I am now back at work and looking forward to our next appointment. I am rested and ready to go. Please call.